Joutsamo nodded. “I see where you’re going. Phone tap or bug?”
“Why not both? Let’s start with a phone tap and see how far-reaching Korpi’s outfit really is. That might tell us if there’s any cross-over between their contacts and Tomi Salmela’s.”
“With Korpi and Nyberg both in jail, it stands to reason Siikala might be up for a promotion. That might put him more in the jurisdiction of Narcotics, though.”
“I’ll have a chat with them. If it starts looking more like their case, then they can have it. But as long as you’re in agreement, I’ll say we have reasonable suspicion to suspect Siikala and that we’re only letting him out for strategic purposes. Then we’ll get a warrant for a phone tap and see who he calls.”
That made Joutsamo pause. “And what if he just gets a new prepaid SIM card?”
“Didn’t he just have some old beat-up Nokia? Least that’s what I remember seeing in the report.”
“Yeah. I don’t remember the model, but it
was old.”
“Well, at any rate, if he bought a new SIM card he’d still have to turn on his old phone to save the numbers onto it, so the phone will connect to the network then. Once we see that, we’ll just wait for the new prepaid number to come up in the same location and get the new number.”
“I already copied all the numbers from his cellphone directory.”
“But the court won’t grant warrants for those numbers in relation to this case. Maybe Narcotics could get one, but not us. So based on the info we have so far, the trail seems to end with Siikala.”
Joutsamo nodded. “OK. Fair enough. So you’ll get the warrant for Siikala’s phones and I’ll set up the tap. You think Siikala’s phone calls for round-the-clock surveillance?” she asked, conscious of the resources such an operation could devour.
“Let’s assess it on a daily basis. Initially, at least in the daytime, we’ll have someone listen in live so we can see when he changes his SIM card, but no need to burn the midnight oil. The case is not at a critical stage at this point,” said Takamäki. All conversations and call data would be saved on a computer hard drive anyway.
“Alright. In other news, Kannas says they’re still working on the laptop, but that they did pick up some information from the Mazda’s onboard computer.”
“What’s that?”
“The engine was started on Sunday afternoon about three o’clock and ran till almost five. Went about thirty miles.”
“So that supports our case.”
“It sat idling somewhere for a while, but we don’t know where.”
“And the gas tank?”
“Half full, so I don’t think we’ll find them on any service station cameras.”
“Well, we’ll have time to think about that for a day or two. Some other places might have got them on camera. But this isn’t the kind of case where we’d really need to determine the car’s route. We have Nyberg’s picture from the store by Salmela’s apartment and a statement from an eyewitness that puts Korpi in the car. That’ll take us a ways.”
“Hopefully far enough for a conviction,” said Joutsamo.
“Well, sometimes it’s a sprint, but just as often it ends up being a marathon. Anybody heard anything from Suhonen, by the way?”
Joutsamo shook her head. “Nope. One more thing: I’m having a chat with Mari Lehtonen this evening. She wanted to meet.”
CHAPTER 11
TUESDAY, 5.30 P.M.
GULF OF FINLAND
The bait had been in the water for three hours already without a single bite. No coffee left, either.
“You got anything going on tonight?” asked Salmela.
“I’m in no hurry,” said Suhonen, despite the boredom that had set in after the novelty of a majestic, desolate sea had faded. His life vest kept out the cold and he could piss in the sea-all was well.
They didn’t broach the topic of Salmela’s son again, nor any other difficult subjects. On their last coffee break, Suhonen had promised to help with the funeral and other arrangements, but that having been settled, he didn’t care to bring it up again. Of course, he was more than willing to continue that conversation if that was what Salmela wanted. But Suhonen had said his piece about grief and getting over it, and there wasn’t much more he wanted to add.
“Let’s give it another hour,” said Salmela. “Should make land before nightfall.”
“Fair enough.”
“Who knows, might even get something once it gets a little darker.”
“What, like a fine for fishing without a license?”
Salmela was quiet, which made Suhonen pensive.
After a minute, Salmela spoke up again. “About Tomi…”
“Uh-huh.”
“I heard some things that might interest you.”
Now it was Suhonen’s turn to keep quiet. Of course it interested him, but not more than his friend’s grief. He allowed Salmela to continue.
“I heard Tomi had got mixed up in some… Well…why the fuck should I sugarcoat it-only fair I give it to you straight. He was selling coke to a bunch of soap stars. Business was booming, and he was looking to expand. Heard that from one of his buddies.”
“What buddy?” said Suhonen. The tip could be related to a possible motive, so Suhonen tried to ferret out a bit more. He doubted Salmela would reveal his source, but he wouldn’t lie either.
“Can’t tell you, but it came direct from the source. Put a piece to the guy’s head last night. Pretty sure he was telling the truth.”
“Okay. What’d he say?”
“Tomi had somehow managed to buy two pounds of coke. The guy didn’t say where, but it was all on credit. Up till then he’d been buying maybe a half pound a pop max, so he was pretty damn psyched. He’d managed to sell some of it to the same soap stars; word got around, you know, and he started selling to others, too.”
Suhonen nodded. “So someone was using Tomi to get a piece of the market.”
“Pretty fucking reckless if you ask me…to think that’s gonna fly. You can bet they ain’t pros. Probably some yuppie fucks, or maybe a foreign operator testing the market.”
“And wound up stepping on Korpi’s toes.”
“Exactly. Sold better shit for less. Coke’s a hot commodity.”
“Finland must be getting rich.”
The theory made sense. Tomi Salmela had started to compete with Korpi’s outfit, so they had to get rid of him. In this light, his murder was hardly surprising. Korpi and Nyberg had no choice but to make an example of him.
“Shitty deal.”
“Damn right. That’s why I should’ve taught the kid how the drug trade really works… Taught him to shoot. Not that many dealers got the balls to pull the trigger, and the ones who do are the badasses like Nyberg.”
“Quite a few crime bosses got their start as
hit men.”
“But they ain’t that smart. They might have balls, but they ain’t got brains. That’s why the cops got it so easy. If criminals had some actual intelligence, maybe they wouldn’t…”
“Break the law,” said Suhonen with a smile. For a moment he entertained the idea of trying to turn Salmela from the dark side. Likely a naive notion. Not that Salmela had ever had a choice in the matter. Anyways, he didn’t care to lose his best informant.
“Or they’d start a company.”
“Some have.”
“So which one am I?” Salmela asked.
Suhonen declined to answer because he had a more important question. “So who told you this? If we can get him to testify, Korpi would get life.”
“Can’t tell you…no way.”
“Can you ask him?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Lean on him?”
“No,” said Salmela, visibly irritated. “He’s not an idiot. You don’t testify against Korpi if you wanna live… That would just be fucking stupid.”
“You’re actually a victim in this case, you know. You could testify.”
“I don’t think so. My ex can sue Korpi if she wants, but as long as the asshole rots in a cell I’m OK with that. I had my chance to face him over in Kaarela the day after the murder, and I made up my mind-I never want to see him again.”